Joyful May Events

What a busy last couple weeks!  I did a couple fun achievement day activities with my 8-11 year olds.  We planted some plants in our box garden and boy are they getting drenched by rain lately, grrr!  I will blog more on those subjects later. We had a couple major events in our family! I attended a wedding shower.  My beautiful niece Melinda got married to the man of her dreams Jeff on May 6th in the Salt Lake City temple, which was an all day event.  We were so happy to be among so many family members!  They are such a cute couple!  We attended her sealing/wedding, stayed for pictures, went to lunch at the Lyon House, and went to the reception in the evening.  I absolutely love this photo of Melinda!  She looks so happy!  Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Smith!

 John and me waiting at the temple.

Our family at the wedding reception.

The next day was my youngest daughter's baptism.  I stayed up really late (2:30 AM) preparing the food.  Our niece and nephew stayed the night and was able to help us make the food.  Thanks James and Heather!  We had about 40 people who attended the baptism.  It was so fun to have some family from Arizona and southern Utah attend the baptism!   A funny thing happened to us that night before the baptism.  After dropping off some our nieces and nephew in Highland, we went to a couple stores to get some ingredients for our food.  Around 10:30 in the evening we started the potato salad, magic bars, pasta salad, jello salad, etc.  To our surprise, we were missing a whole bag of groceries, ack!  We searched our car and the house, they were no where to be found.  So John had to drive to Highland Walmart (not our usual shopping store since it is near the place we dropped our family members off, grrrr).   He brought in our receipt and explained to them the things we were missing:  a bag of coconut, a large bag of chocolate chips,  two cans of mandarin oranges, shredded parmesan cheese, two cans of sweetened condensed milk, and pepperoni.  Obviously, we were missing a lot of key ingredients to make some of my things!  Luckily, they had record that our bag of groceries never left the store and John was able to get them again.  The next day we made peanut butter brownies.  It was a crazy morning getting ready and doing last minute cleaning!  My daughter received a rose from her primary teacher, Sister Taylor.

We left for the baptism about a half an hour before it started.  When I got there, her baptism jumpsuit was waiting for her in the changing room, but I forgot towels for John and my eight year old.   I recall with my oldest daughter, I forgot a dry pair of underwear, but I did remember the towels. So I hurried home and grabbed a couple towels.  By the time I got back, it was starting.  There were three kids in our ward being baptised that day.  There were a couple talks and we sang a few songs.    My daughter was second to be baptised.  She gasped when she entered the baptismal font due to the water being so cold.  Luckily, all went smoothly.  My oldest daughter had to be baptised twice due to my husband not raising the right hand!  She was one cold girly afterwards.

She was baptised by her father, John.

I was missing in the picture due to getting towels at home!

After she and John changed into dry clothes, she received the Holy Ghost from my father in-law, Joseph.  It was a beautiful blessing and we all could feel the Spirit when she received it!  Later that day, my daughter told me she felt warm and happy when she got the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The happy sisters!

Here are most of the guests at the Baptism!  We were missing John while he was changing into dry clothes!

Getting ready to receive the Holy Ghost

Here are most of the guests some left (my side of the family), but I got their photos at the house!  Many family members from John's side of the family attended: Uncle Duane, Grandpa and Grandma Free, Marilee, Rich, Holly, Becca, baby Kate, Stacy, Ryan, Avery, Joe, Diana, Josh, Daniel, Andrew, Adam, Michael, Rachel, Heather, James, a couple extended Brazilian Silva family members, Matt, Chiaki, Kent, Anna, and Erika.  We had a couple friends Amy and her daughter came.

Below is my brother Nate with my little girl.  The rest of the people are the Hahn family: Ruth and her three darling girls!  Ruth's husband Keith is my ex step brother who couldn't make it due to working as an ICU nurse!

Afterwards, we went to our house.  I asked some local family members to bring  camping chairs so that we all have something to sit on!  I had a lot of help from people bringing a salad, a fruit platter, desserts, rolls, meat, cheese, etc in addition to what I made.

Two happy friends enjoying some good food!

Over all it was a wonderful day.  We had lovely weather (it rained the next day) and enjoyed interacting with many family members this past week. I am so proud of my girl for making the decision to become baptised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

Lastly, another joyful event took place this past week!  My nephew Justin married a sweet girl (Keli) from Brazil. Keli is 3/4 Japanese and 1/4 Brazilian.  She can speak three languages.  They met while he was serving in Japan.  In fact, he was the missionary that baptised her a couple years ago!  What a neat story they can tell their children/grandchildren someday! We had the opportunity to get to know Keli better while she was visiting a couple months ago.  Since most of his family currently lives in Brazil as well as hers, they decided to get married/sealed in Brazil.  They will be returning to the United States next month so that Justin can finish school.  Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Silva!

Photo by Tobar Photography (Kelli Tobar).

What a wonderful month to rejoice such important events!   I am so grateful for my family and friends who support us!